Apparatus for glueing together material layers

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for glueing together two different material layers, of which one is intended to form a first cover in a folder, file or the like and the other a second cover and/or a spine in the folder, file or the like, the glueing being carried out in an area where the layers overlap each other, by a glueing device included in the apparatus, said device coating one side of one layer with a glue strip along or close to one edge thereof. The apparatus also includes an aligning means (23, 25), which aligns both layers relative each other so that they overlap each other in an area which is at least as wide as the width of the glue strip, a pressing means (26, 28) pressing both layers towards each other in the area for the glue strip therebetween, and a feed means (6-10, 15-18, 29-32) for feeding the layers through the apparatus.

DESCRIPTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to an apparatus for glueing together twodifferent material layers, of which one is intended to form a firstcover in a folder, file or the like, and the other a second cover and/ora spine in a folder, file or the like, there being on said spine a gluestrip for binding sheets inserted in the folder, file or the like whichare intended to be fastened to the strip, glueing together taking placein an area where the layers overlap each other.

2. Background Art

It is already known to manufacture folders or files of the kinddescribed above by manually inserting a first sheet in a glueingmachine, and after the glueing operation, during which one side of thesheet is coated with a glue bead along an edge thereof, manually to turnthe sheet and put it with the glued side upwards on a substructure,whereafter a second sheet is manually placed on the substructure whileadjusting it relative the first sheet, so that the sheets are caused tooverlap each other in the area of the glue bead. The upper sheet issubsequently pressed against the lower sheet in said area with thefingers of the hand, whereafter the thus glued-together sheets areremoved from the substructure.

The glued-together sheets are then placed in a machine, e.g. of the kindillustrated in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,061, for providing the part ofthe first sheet which is to form the spine of the finished file orfolder with a hot-melt glue strip and also to provide creasing linesbetween the spine and the covers. After the covers have been foldedalong the creasing lines so that they are opposite each other, sheetsmay be inserted between the covers and be caused to engage against thehot melt strip on the inside of the spine, and the folder or file beingplaced on a heated substructure in an apparatus, e.g. of the kindillustrated in the U.S. Pat No. 4,367,116, so that the hot melt gluestrip melts and the edges of the sheets adhere to the inside of thespine.

Particularly the handling of both sheets in conjunction with glueingtogether thereof, is very time-consuming, since a large part of thehandling is manual. Furthermore, the manual handling results in aqualitatively relatively poor product being obtained, since the aligningof the sheets relative each other in the glueing area cannot be doneexactly, and since the pressing force in this area varies along thelength of the glue strip.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

One object of the present invention is at least partially to eliminatethe disadvantages with the previously used glueing processes, and toprovide an apparatus which carries out the glueing and the workoperations associated therewith automatically and with great accuracy.

This object is achieved by the apparatus in accordance with theinvention being given the distinguishing features disclosed in theclaims.

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan of an apparatus in accordance with theinvention, seen from above, and

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of a glueing device included in theapparatus of FIG. 1.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The apparatus in accordance with the invention includes a stand 1,upstanding on a floor, and carrying all the parts included in theapparatus. Two magazines 2 and 3 are situated on the input side of theapparatus, one magazine 2 containing a sheaf of plastic sheets and theother magazine 3 a sheaf of paper sheets. The plastic and paper sheetsare equally as long in the longitudinal direction of the apparatus, butthe paper sheet is somewhat wider than the plastic sheets, since thepaper sheet shall not only form a cover in a finished folder or file,but also a spine, which is formed in a later work operation by providingthe paper sheet with creasing lines, and folding the sheet along theseso that the cover portion thereof will be situated opposite the plasticsheet, which thus forms the second cover which has exactly the sameformat as the first cover. How the crease lines are formed, how thefolder is provided with a glue strip and how the file is finished, isdescribed exhaustively in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,367,061and 4,367,116.

The upper plastic sheet 4 in the magazine 2 and the upper paper sheet 5in the magazine 3 are lifted by previously known and unillustrated meansfrom the respective sheaves in the position 1 and inserted between aroll pair 6 with rollers, rotatably mounted in the stand 1. The rollpair 6 and other roll pairs included in the apparatus comprise lowerdrive rolls (not shown) and upper bolster rolls, of which those lackingrollers also allow the movement of the sheets at right angles to thelongitudinal direction of the apparatus. The roll pairs 6 and roll pairs7, 8 and 9 advance the sheets 4 and 5 towards a stop means comprisingtwo abutments 11 and 12 attached to a rotatable shaft 10, while thepaper sheet 5 is moved in a direction A by an arm 13 engaging in onelong side of the sheet, such as to align it in the correct positionrelative a glueing means 14 in position 2. The alignment in thedirection A is terminated when the sheets strike the abutments 11 and12, with which both sheets are also aligned in the longitudinaldirection so that their forward edges are situated in line with eachother.

The abutments 11 and 12 are then turned downwards by turning the shaft10 so that the sheets 4, 5 may be moved by the roll pairs 9, 15, 16towards the glueing device 14, which comprises a container 17 (see FIG.2), filled with liquid glue, in which a disc 18 continuously rotates fortransferring glue to a glueing wheel 19, driven by the disc 18, gluebeing scraped off the rotating circumference of the glueing wheel 19 toa suitable thickness by a scraper 20. When the sheet 5 is inserted andmoved between the glueing wheel 19 and rollers 21 and 22 (position 3)situated adjacent the glueing wheel, the sheet is pressed against theglueing wheel and provided with a glue strip on one side along alongitudinal edge of the sheet 5. The sheet 4 is simultaneously movedparallel to the sheet 5 at a distance from the glueing means 14.

While the sheets 4, 5 are moved from position 3 to position 4 by theroll pairs 17, 35 and 18 the sheets are also moved towards each other byarms 23, 24, which are movable to and from each other, the sheets thusbeing put in register so that they overlap each other a distancesubstantially corresponding to the width of the glue strip on the sheet5. During the movement towards each other, the sheets 4, 5 are situatedat different levels so that there is no contact between them before theyare exactly aligned relative each other. The final alignment of thesheets 4, 5 in the direction A is carried out as described above thearms 23, 24 and in the longitudinal direction by a swingable stop bar25, which takes up the position illustrated by full lines in FIG. 1 forstopping the movement of the sheets in the longitudinal direction of theapparatus for a short time and aligning them before the bar 25 is swungaway to the position illustrated by chain dotted lines, where it nolonger prevents the continued movement of the sheets.

Immediately after the bar 25 has been swung away and the arms 23, 24have terminated their movement towards each other, a support plate 26 ismoved down towards the sheets 4, 5 there being two rollers 27 and 28pivotably mounted on the plate 26. The rollers 27, 28 are situatedimmediately above the overlapping area of the sheets and opposite twobolster rollers (unillustrated) attached to the drive shaft 29 and 30.When the rollers 27, 28 press the sheet 5 down onto the sheet 4 in thisarea while the sheets are simultaneously advanced in the longitudinaldirection of the apparatus, the sheets mutually adhere and are thusunited with each other. During continued movement of the sheets in thelast-mentioned direction of the drive roll pairs 31, 32 and 36, thesheets are finally pressed together along the whole of the overlappingarea by a roller 33 and an unillustrated drive roller placed directlyopposite it, before the mutually united sheets are discharged to aconveyor belt 34 for further handling.

Although only one embodiment of the invention has been described aboveand illustrated on the drawings, it should be understood that theinvention is not limited to this embodiment and only by what isdisclosed in the claims.

I claim:
 1. In an apparatus for glueing together two different materiallayers (4, 5), of which one is intended to form a first cover in afolder, file or the like, and the other a second cover and/or a spine inthe folder, file or the like, wherein said apparatus includes:glueingmeans (14) for coating one side of one of said layers with a glue stripalong or close to one edge thereof to accommodate the glueing togetherof said layers (4, 5) in an area where the layers (4, 5) overlap eachother: layer aligning means (23-25) for aligning said layers (4, 5);press means (26-28) for pressing both layers (4, 5) towards each otherin the area of overlap during a pressing operation; and feed means(6-10, 15-18, 29-32) for feeding the layers (4, 5) in a feedingdirection parallel to the length of said glue strip along a feed paththrough the apparatus from an upstream region of the apparatus to adownstream region of the apparatus;said apparatus characterized in that:said feed means (6-10, 15-18, 29-32) comprise rolls allowing both layers(4, 5) to be horizontally displaced thereon; said aligning means (23-25)comprise a first means (25) for engaging the leading end edges of bothlayers (4, 5) on the rolls in order to align the leading and edges ofsaid layers (4, 5) relative to each other along a line perpendicular tothe feeding direction, said first means (25) including a stop member(25) which is disposed in the immediate vicinity of the press means(26-28) and downstream of both said glueing means (14) and said pressmeans (26-28) and against which the layers (4, 5) are moved forengagement before the pressing operation, said stop member (25) beingdisplaceable into and out of said feed path to permit continued feedingof the layers (4, 5) after the pressing operation; and said aligningmeans (23-25) also comprise a second means (23, 24) downstream ofglueing means (14) for displacing both layers (4, 5) on the rollsperpendicular to the feeding direction to overlap the layers (4, 5) inthe overlapping area and align the longitudinal edges of said layers (4,5) relative to a line parallel to the feeding direction which isparallel to the length of said glue strip.
 2. Apparatus as claimed inclaim 1 further characterized in that said second means (23, 24) aresynchronized with said first means (25) for displacing the layers (4, 5)towards each other during movement of the layers (4, 5) toward saidfirst means (25).
 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2 furthercharacterized in that said press means (26, 28) includes roller means(27, 28) for rolling against one layer (5) while the layers (4, 5) aremoved by said feed means (18, 29-31).